roadrunner

They say that everyone has at least one brilliant idea; it’s just that most people never do anything with it. It’s one thing to have a eureka moment, but implementing it requires time, effort, and capital. Thanks to the advent of ICOs, at least one of those problems has now been solved. Almost half of this year’s crypto projects launched their ICO with little more than a white paper and an idea. Also read: Telegram Rakes in Over $1.5 Billion, Ditches ICO for an Open Network & Token Crowdfund First, Code Later It’s no secret that many ICOs launch without an MVP in place, or that many have simply hired a developer to create the smart contract for their token. Recruiting developers and writing code costs money after all, and money’s hard to come without an ICO, hence the eagerness to crowdfund first and code later. New research by ICORating shows the prevalence of this trend among crypto projects. Their market research report reveals that 46% of the ICOs that launched in Q1 of 2018 did so with zero development. Just 26% had an MVP in place, and 15.5% had an alpha release ready at the time of their ICO. It’s become commonplace for projects, especially those working on blockchain infrastructure, to launch with just a roadmap and whitepaper as an ERC20 token before initiating a token swap once their mainnet is ready several months down the line. The difficulty for investors, trying to scrutinize these projects, is that they must trust the claims of throughput and other performance-based metrics, since there is no way of verifying them. Investors See Diminishing Returns ICORating’s Q1 data also shows that the median return on tokens has fallen more than 10% compared to Q4 of 2017, and now sits at 49%. In addition, only 21% of this year’s tokens have been listed on exchanges so far, versus 33% for the previous period. Perhaps the most telling statistic that demonstrates the difficulty investors have had in turning a profit is the fact that 83% of tokens listed in Q1 traded below their ICO price. Data shows the sectors where crypto funds are invested A final finding of interest from ICORating concerns crypto funds. These have proliferated over the past 18 months, with a string of major investors from the worlds of VC and traditional finance entering the space. These funds tend to enter the market with great fanfare, but have a tendency to leave with a whimper. ICORating notes that only 119 of the 219 crypto funds it analyzed are actively operating, and nine funds closed in the first quarter of this year including Crowd Crypto Fund and Alpha Protocol. They opine: “We expect that more funds may be closed in the future, due either to inefficiency or legal problems with regulators.” Nevertheless, with the remaining funds overseeing almost $28 billion in assets, crypto funds are big business. What’s your opinion of ICOs that launch without any code or an MVP? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and ICORating. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post 46% of This Year’s ICOs Launched with Nothing More Than an Idea appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Christopher Giancarlo, recently discussed the challenges associated with assessing the regulatory implications of bitcoin and cryptocurrency according to the CFTC’s “decades[-]old” legislative mandate. Also Read: Openbazaar Co-Founder Expresses Frustration Over BTC Fees CFTC Chairman Criticizes 1930’s Legislative Apparatus In a recent interview with CNBC, Mr. Giancarlo acknowledges the inappropriateness of the CFTC’s antiquated regulatory apparatus when assessing the innovative phenomena of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. When asked of the legal classification of bitcoin, Mr. Giancarlo stated: “It’s a great debate […] a lot of people are looking at it from so many different angles, and we at the CFTC have been looking at it for a number of years now.” Mr. Giancarlo emphasized the challenge of applying the CFTC’s outdated regulatory apparatus to bitcoin, stating that “the statutes under which [the CFTC] operate w[as] written, in our case, in 1935, and the SEC in 1933-34, and it’s often hard to look at those statutes, and find out where something as new and as innovative as bitcoin, and many of the other cryptocurrencies […] fall into a regulatory regime that was written decades ago.” CFTC Chairman Predicts Bitcoin’s Regulatory Challenges Won’t Be “Resolved Any Time Soon” When queried regarding previous statements arguing that bitcoin exhibits similarities to commodities, Mr. Giancarlo stated, “I think there are certainly aspects of this that you might call a virtual asset, like gold – only its virtual […] It is an asset that many find worthy of holding for a long period of time,” adding that cryptocurrencies “have aspects […] that might not be ideal as a means of exchange, but might be suitable as a buy and hold strategy.” The CFTC chairman added “But the truth of the matter of it is, is that bitcoin and a lot of its other virtual currency counterparts, really have elements of all of the different asset classes […] and so, as a world, and as regulators, we are coming to grips with this just now, in real-time,” concluding that “It’s complicated, and I don’t see it being resolved any time soon.” Bitcoin Futures Regulations “Working Quite Well” Mr. Giancarlo pointed to the bitcoin futures market as a successful example of cryptocurrency regulation, stating “In our case though, we have seen the licensing and the operation of bitcoin futures contracts, which are cash-settled contracts on bitcoin – operated by [The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)] and [The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)] – and those contracts are working quite well.” When asked of the potential risk of “over-zealous” regulation […] stifl[ing] innovation” in the cryptocurrency sector, Mr. Giancarlo stated that “As a regulatory agency, […] the [CFTC] has often been in the forefront of technological innovation, it’s in our DNA as an agency. We try to apply our statute on a principles-based approach – we look at the core principles and apply it to new innovations like this – and that’s the approach that we have taken in the case of bitcoin futures.” Responsibility for Development of Legislation Lies With Congress The CFTC chairman emphasized that the development of an effective regulatory apparatus for cryptocurrencies lies with the United States Congress, stating “At the end of the day, it’s for Congress, and not regulators, to decide whether new policies should be evolved for these new asset classes.” “All […] regulators have to apply [their] statute in the spirit in which it was written […] by Congress,” added Mr. Giancarlo. Mr. Giancarlo revealed that many politicians are coming to recognize the need for legislative reform regarding the development of cryptocurrency regulations, stating “I think there’s certainly an appetite, amongst a number of congressmen and women, and senators that I have spoken to, to approach this with some new eyes, some new thinking, and so I think there is a growing on Capitol Hill for some rethinking here.” Growing Recognition of Need for Regulatory Reform The CFTC chairman stated that “Jay Clayton from the SEC and I recently testified in front of the Senate banking committee, and we talked to Congress about whether maybe some new legislation might be appropriate in this area, and I think you will see, going forward, perhaps in this Congress or a future Congress, some attempt to deal with this new innovation.” Despite the increasing recognition of the need for legislative reform, Mr. Giancarlo stressed that it will take time for a robust regulatory regime to be developed for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. “I know bitcoin has been in place […] since eight or nine years or so, but the fact of the matter is [it] still is relatively new for us at the regulatory agency,” said Mr. Giancarlo, adding that it will “take some new open-mindedness, some new way of thinking about it, for us to get our heads around it entirely.” What is your response to the CFTC chairman’s comments? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Wikipedia Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post CFTC’s Christopher Giancarlo Criticizes Outdated Regulatory Mandate appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release. -DASHUB Inc., signs commercial agreement with Clears as its exclusive KYC/AML user verification solution.- -Clears provides DASHUB’s users with international compliance, data privacy, security, and frictionless interaction using the blockchain- NYC-New York- May 03rd 2018 – ​Clears, a revolutionary data-less Know Your Customer [KYC] service, powered by the Ethereum blockchain, and DASHUB, an online automotive marketplace , inked a commercial agreement for the implementation of Clears solution to verify compliance regulation of DASHUB users. Clears will be the exclusive provider of KYC and AML verification for investors and users on DASHUB’s token sale for AXT and their planned future platform called the Automotive eXchange Platform (AXP).. Clears system assures compliance while protecting users personal data. Data given to Clears is encrypted, hashed and cold stored. Clears maintains an unparalleled integrity and security for its users and mitigates its partners liability in the case of audits. “Compliance is a top priority at DASHUB. The automotive sales industry is a constant victim of fraud, and requires unique conditions to secure its marketing funnel. Partnering with Clears was an obvious choice for both user protection and their unique blockchain approach.” said Max Kane President and CEO of DASHUB. KYC—or Know Your Customer—is a critical process for all financial companies dealing with international investors, shareholders and customers. Clears is a technology based on the Ethereum blockchain offering a scalable and personalized KYC process. It aims to expedite the acquisition and delivery of required information to companies and regulators around the world. This, while simultaneously improving the users experience by increasing security of sensitive personal data and lowering the cost for the service provider. “Clears has invested extensive resources, infrastructure, time and training to build out in-depth blockchain solutions for businesses looking to speed their onboarding without compromising on compliance. This partnership is the quintessence of our mission” said Clears CEO Florian Seroussi. This unique collaboration demonstrates perfectly the integration of blockchain technology in the mainstream market space, as a solution to cumbersome, costly and outdated models of operational or regulatory barriers. About Clears: Clears is a fully customizable, data-less KYC solution, that guarantees a business’s compliance with local and international regulations. Clears eliminates the most prominent points of user anxiety; hacks, identity theft, fraud. In the case of audit by regulators, Clears can provide the original documentation by extracting the documents from the cold storage server. Users can use their Clears credentials on all KYC’s using Clears, giving them a private, secure and convenient experience online. Join us at : https://clea.rs/?ref=clearsteam About DASHUB: DASHUB Inc. is an online automotive marketplace offering services such as online vehicle sales, on-site inspection services, logistics, financing, and vehicle service contracts (i.e., warranties). Consumers who wish to browse their inventory of over 150,000 vehicles (both salvage and clean title, up to 80% off retail in some cases) can register on www.dashub.com. DASHUB’s current blockchain-based project, the Automotive eXchange Platform, and its supporting token sale (i.e., the AXT token), aims to innovate and disrupt the online car- buying process on a global scale. Join us at: http://axt.io/ Contact Email Address mg@clea.rs Supporting Link https://clea.rs/?ref=clearsteam This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post PR: DASHUB Selects Clears for KYC and AML Compliance appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Hearing about the whopping figures that bitcoin exchanges are bringing in, one might be led to believe that all businesses in the field are making money hand over fist. Latest figures from Square, however, show that is not necessarily the case. At least not in the short term. Also Read: Bitcoin Is Not Used by Organized Crime Says Hong Kong Government SQ Reports Strong Q1 Square Inc (NYSE:SQ), the developer of the mobile payment app Square Cash, has posted its financial results for the first quarter of 2018 on Wednesday, showing overall strong performance. Total net revenue was $669 million, up 45% year over year, and Adjusted Revenue was $307 million, up 51% year over year. Despite its impressive yearly growth, the company’s stock price fell by about 6% in after-hours trading on Wednesday. Many analysts attribute this drop in SQ shares to the disappointing figures the company presented via its bitcoin-related business. Bitcoin revenue contributed $34.1 million to total net revenue in the first quarter, but cost was $33.9 million resulting in a minor add to adjusted revenue of just $200,000. Taking the Long View Square CEO, Jack Dorsey, addressed questions about his take on the bitcoin business in the conference call with analysts following the release of the quarterly report. He thinks that the company has a very different customer base than the majority of bitcoin exchanges so they wanted to initially provide just a safe way to participate in the market. “It’s a demographic that typically would not be able to use other exchanges or would find those complicated and something that we wanted to make super easy, but at the same time, continue to protect and make it safe.” “In terms of the strategy long-term, the first step we wanted to take is to learn as quickly as possible, to offer something that people would find valuable. And the reason we started this initially is because we did see cash customers wanting to buy crypto, utilizing their cash accounts. So, we made that a little bit easier. But we want to learn what this meant for us as a company and also for our industry and really pushed ourselves a lot to make sure that we were best in class in terms of providing a simple easy of exchange and then we can build off of that.” Square CEO Jack Dorsey in happier times. Answering a question about other potential uses for blockchain technology, the CEO said “there is no other technology apart from artificial intelligence and machine learning and deep learning that affects the way we can operate our service and the way we can build our business. We’ve built a service that individuals can use, providing more access to more people around this technology and this implementation. And because we are connected directly to the blockchain and using it every single minute of every single day, we have been able to learn quite quickly and how it could impact the rest of our business as well.” “There is certainly a ton of applications around creating more efficiencies within our business, but also creating new opportunities as well. So, we are still in a learning phase of where we can apply it in the right way because we don’t just want to purely apply the technology where it doesn’t fit but making sure we are actually solving a real need and a real problem whether that be internal or external. But, we do have a lot of excitement for what it can do. And we are building a significant expertise within the company to do that.” Is this a good opportunity for longer term stock investors add SQ to their portfolios? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Square. Do you agree with us that Bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. That’s why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics. The post Square Made a Meager $0.2 Million From Bitcoin in Q1 2018 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cai Wensheng, the founder of Meitu Inc., a Chinese technology company that makes smartphones and selfie apps, has announced that his bitcoin holdings have reached a personal milestone of 10,000 BTC. Mr. Wensheng also discussed his investments in alternative cryptocurrencies, and compared the present state of the cryptocurrency sector to that of the internet of the early 2000s. Also Read: Bitcoin Is Not Used by Organized Crime Syndicates Says Hong Kong Government Meitu Founder Accumulates Approximately 10,000 in 2018 In a recent interview with entrepreneur Wang Feng, Mr. Wensheng revealed that his goal of owning 10,000 BTC had been achieved following extensive accumulation during the bear trend of 2018. “When I clearly saw the future of blockchain and bitcoin, I set a goal for myself – owning 10,000 bitcoins, and now the goal has been achieved,” he said. Mr. Wensheng claimed that “Back in this January I only had several bitcoins, just to follow the trend.” Mr. Wensheng states that he then “realized that blockchain and bitcoin are the future,” leading to the entrepreneur to “set the goal of accumulating 10,000 bitcoins.” Despite being enticed by the meteoric gains made by the bitcoin markets in 2017, Mr. Wensheng patiently waited for the markets to retrace. “Last December saw the great spike and I didn’t buy any bitcoin at that time. Later when the price corrected to normal in January, I began the career by buying in bitcoins at low cost,” he recounted. Mindset Critical to Successful Investment Mr. Wensheng stated that in his view, “the big difference between investment and speculation is the mindset. Suppose you buy in a stock share or a cryptocurrency but the price keeps falling after that, if you are an investor, you will be delighted at the stumble for it means good time to buy more in; on the contrary, if you keep complaining of the slowdown, no offense but I think you are actually a speculator.” Despite his assertions surrounding the requisite psychology for successful trading, Mr. Wensheng emphasizes the need for new investors to exercise due diligence and caution when entering the markets. “Of course, before you get started, thorough research and analysis is a must,” he said. Cai Wensheng Compares Cryptocurrency Markets to Early 2000’s Tech Boom In the interview, Mr. Wensheng described the current state of the cryptocurrency markets to the boom and bust-prone internet sector of the early 2000’s, stating “It is the similar case with Internet in 2000, startups die away in batches when the Internet bubble burst back then, few made it. While if you bet the right one, the returns are beyond your imagination.” Mr. Wensheng states that he has “invested in a dozen of blockchain projects,” including “Theta, Ontology, Cortex, Arcblock, Zipper, Yeecall, Dxchain, [and] Charter.” So far, Mr. Wensheng claims that “some” of his cryptocurrency investments have yielded “fairly high returns and some are still losing money” – describing the markets’ performance as “reasonable […] as blockchain is still in its early phase and practical applications are lacking, in this way, it needs more support and patience. In the long run, it’s promising and time will tell.” Do you agree with the comparison between the cryptocurrency markets and the tech boom of the early 2000’s? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Meitu Inc. Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. The post Meitu Founder Announces Accumulation of 10,000 Bitcoins in 2018 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The co-founder of Openbazaar, Washington Sanchez, has taken to Twitter to vent frustration with the high fees associated with BTC. Mr. Sanchez expressed regret for his previous BTC “maximalism,” and reinforced Openbazaar’s desire to place a greater emphasis on alternative cryptocurrencies. Also Read: Australia Cracks Down on Misleading and Deceptive Initial Coin Offerings Washington Sanchez Slams BTC Fees Since 2014, Openbazaar has primarily facilitated payments on its platform in the form of bitcoin. In recent days, the company’s co-founder has expressed frustration with the fees associated with BTC payments, and the process and outcome of the scaling debate surrounding bitcoin. “I personally wasted so much time in the bitcoin scaling civil war that I could have used designing/building dapps and opening up Openbazaar to multiple currencies. Instead, we had to wait for fees [in BTC] to cripple any consumer usage before we woke up,” Mr. Sanchez posted. “The core lesson was to not let personal ideology interfere with designing what is best for open competition and experimentation within the marketplace,” he added. ”Openbazaar is supposed to be a free and open protocol for trade using cryptocurrency, a way for currencies and tokens to gain meaningful economic utility to acquire goods and services, and an entry point for people to earn/onboard. This vision cannot be limited to a single coin,” he concluded. Openbazaar to Introduce Suite of Altcoins Openbazaar has announced that it will move to support a wide range of altcoins, with Mr. Sanchez tweeting that “With any luck, by the end of the year, [Openbazaar] will look radically different,” with the platform hoping to support users’ ability to “purchase/sell goods or services for BTC, BCH, LTC, ZEC, ETH,” in addition to “any ERC20 token.” Despite the company’s desire to emphasize alternative payment methods, BTC still remains the most popular cryptocurrency on Openbazaar – with approximately 11,000 listings offering BTC as a means of payment. The second most popular currency is Bitcoin Cash with roughly 1,100 listings for BCH currently hosted on Openbazaar. Do you agree with Mr. Sanchez’s assessment that high BTC fees have hurt adoption? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Openbazaar Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. The post Openbazaar Co-Founder Expresses Frustration Over BTC Fees appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In today’s Bitcoin in Brief – crypto traders are in trouble due to issues with the trading platforms they have trusted. Hacked Italian Bitgrail exchange is closed again after a brief reopening. It suspended operations on request from the court of Florence, following a petition  filed on behalf of one of its creditors. Also, beleaguered Romanian Btcxchange has shut down after multiple setbacks. A local bank recently closed its account. Also read: Bitcoin in Brief Wednesday: Hacker Gets Trolled, Vertcoin Gets Hacked Bitgrail Reopened, then Closed Again Bitgrail, the Italian crypto exchange which suspended operations after losing 17 million XRB in a presumed hack this year, has briefly reopened and closed again. On May 1 the trading platform announced it will commence operations on the following day, May 2, 2018, with trading and withdrawals available for all supported coins, except Nano (XRB). Bitgrail also promised to restore the Nano market for users at a date to be announced shortly. “Our team is working hard on verifying all users who have submitted the documents in an expedited manner,” the statement read. The reopening, however, did not last long. Yesterday, the exchange announced it was suspending operations again after receiving a notice from the court of Florence. The court asked for the immediate closure of Bitgrail following a “precautionary suspension request” by lawyers representing one of the 3,000 users who suffered losses in the hack. Last week, the law firm Bonelli Erede  filed a petition on behalf of the creditor asking the court to declare the entities operating the exchange bankrupt. These are Webcoin Solutions di Francesco Firano and BG Services, formerly Bitgrail S.r.l. In February, Bitgrail’s owner, Francesco Firano, announced “that internal checks revealed unauthorized transactions which led to a 17 million Nano shortfall.” The market value of the lost cryptocurrency was estimated at around $170 million at the time. About a month later, Bitgrail stated in a Telegram post that it will refund users through the creation and issuance of BGS tokens and denied responsibility for the losses. 20 percent of the missing funds were to be returned in Nano, and 80 percent in the new BGS coin. The users who were willing to accept the offer had to restore their accounts and give up any legal claims. Almost 80 percent of the participants in a Twitter poll hosted by Francesco Firano himself voted to close the trading platform. Romanian Btcxchange Closing for Good Btcxchange, the oldest bitcoin trading platform in Romania, has closed down after multiple setbacks through the years. The platform informed its customers about the decision in an announcement published on its website. Btcxchange had already shut down some of its operations in February and crypto-fiat conversion was not available to its users. However, clients were allowed to deposit bitcoin and maintain their accounts. “Please withdraw all your balances before May 1,” the company said in a statement. The Romanian crypto exchange was launched in 2014. In December of that year, its team issued its first notice asking customers to withdraw their funds. The team claimed it had been denied access to the exchange servers by their lead programmer. Btcxchange shut down its operations again in August, 2016, after it was up for sale. Services were restored in November by the new owner. The latest episode of the drama unfolded in January this year when Idea Bank closed the platform’s account. Chase Closes Erik Voorhees’ Credit Card Account Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees has announced in a tweet that Chase Bank has closed his credit card account. “Chase just closed my credit card account. No warning. No explanation of any kind. Won’t tell me why,” he said in a post on the microblogging platform. “No wonder people hate that company,” Voorhees added, correcting himself in a further comment: “Sorry, I shouldn’t have used the word ‘company.’ Company refers to a market-based organization that has to bring a product to market and compete openly.” He also notes that the bank is “more akin to a Soviet-style state-appendage that wraps itself in regulatory cronyism than a company.” Coinbase Applauds New York Inquiry into Crypto Exchanges US-based cryptocurrency exchange and wallet Coinbase has greeted the actions recently taken by New York Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, in regards to crypto trading platforms. “We applaud […] the action to bring further transparency to the virtual currency markets,” Coinbase chief legal officer Mike Lempres wrote in a letter. The exchange, which is licensed under New York’s Bitlicense regime, has published part of its response to Schneiderman’s office. Lempres discloses information about the assets stored on the platform, $150 billion, and the funding it has received. The letter also notes the company’s cooperation with authorities and regulators around the world. In April, the Office of the Attorney General of New York sent letters to 13 crypto exchanges as part of an inquiry into policies and practices employed by the trading platforms. Not all of them have responded positively to the questionnaire. “When I saw this 34-point demand […] I realized that we made the right decision to get the hell out of New York,” Kraken CEO, Jesse Powell, said in a Twitter post. Mr. Powell also described acceptance of the questionnaire as “placative kowtowing.” His reaction has been praised by other representatives of the industry. Shapeshift CEO Eric Voorhees thanked Powell for “taking the ethical stance and speaking up for what’s right”. Do you trust the trading platforms you are using? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Johannes Gees. Bitcoin News is growing fast. To reach our global audience, send us a news tip or submit a press release. Let’s work together to help inform the citizens of Earth (and beyond) about this new, important and amazing information network that is Bitcoin. The post Bitcoin in Brief Thursday: Crypto Traders in Troubled Waters appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Goldman Sachs is reportedly launching a bitcoin trading operation where it will trade bitcoin futures contracts on behalf of clients using its own money, starting as early as the next few weeks. The Wall Street investment firm will also offer its own bitcoin futures product to clients. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Goldman Gets into Bitcoin According to the New York Times, Goldman Sachs is gearing up to launch a trading operation to buy and sell bitcoin futures for institutional clients. Reporter Nathaniel Popper wrote: In the next few weeks — the exact start date has not been set — Goldman will begin using its own money to trade bitcoin futures contracts on behalf of clients. It will also create its own, more flexible version of a future, known as a non-deliverable forward, which it will offer to clients. There were rumors last year of the firm planning to launch a cryptocurrency trading desk, such as a December Bloomberg article, citing people with knowledge of the strategy. In January, CEO Lloyd Blankfein put an end to the rumors of Goldman Sachs launching a bitcoin trading desk, declaring that as far as “a principal bitcoin business where we’re going long and short bitcoin, market making, so far we’re not.” Nonetheless, CNBC quoted him admit that “we’re clearing futures in bitcoins for some of our futures clients. We’d clear them. We’re a prime broker and so if our clients are going to do it, we’re going to go do it.” Clients Requests Rana Yared, one of Goldman’s executives overseeing the creation of the trading operation, was interviewed by the New York Times. She conveyed to the publication, “the bank had received inquiries from hedge funds, as well as endowments and foundations that received virtual currency donations from newly minted bitcoin millionaires and didn’t know how to handle them.” Citing that “the ultimate decision to begin trading bitcoin contracts was approved by Goldman’s board of directors,” she was then quoted: It resonates with us when a client says, ‘I want to hold bitcoin or bitcoin futures because I think it is an alternate store of value. While her team had reservations about getting involved with bitcoin, Yared explained that “Goldman had concluded that bitcoin is not a fraud and does not have the characteristics of a currency,” the news outlet conveyed, adding that “A number of clients wanted to hold it as a valuable commodity, similar to gold, given the limited quantity of bitcoin that can ever be ‘mined’ in a complex, virtual system.” Commenting on the risks involved with dealing in cryptocurrencies, she detailed, “it is not a new risk that we don’t understand… It is just a heightened risk that we need to be extra aware of here.” Popper elaborated: While Goldman will not initially be buying and selling actual bitcoins, a team at the bank is looking at going in that direction if it can get regulatory approval and figure out how to deal with the additional risks associated with holding the virtual currency. What do you think of Goldman Sachs launching a bitcoin futures trading operation? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Goldman Sachs, and Pixabay. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Goldman Sachs Launching Bitcoin Trading Operation Within Weeks appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On May 2, a new on-chain social media platform for the Bitcoin Cash network was announced called ‘Blockpress.’ According to the Blockpress development team the platform has been under construction for months, and they are pleased to finally release the initial version to the public. Also read: Markets Update: Trading Action Heats Up During the First Week of May Another On-Chain Social Media Platform Called Blockpress Launches on the Bitcoin Cash Blockchain After the past few weeks with everyone talking about the on-chain social media application Memo, another similar platform has been introduced to the bitcoin cash community. On Wednesday, May 2, a developer announced the launch of BCH-powered social media service called Blockpress. The social media application Blockpress, much like Memo, performs every action using a bitcoin cash transaction. However, Blockpress is far richer, as far as the graphic interface is concerned, as the application resembles the look of a Twitter profile page. Blockpress allows users to add their name, set an avatar, and also set a cover photo for their profile with each action costing a microtransaction of BCH. Moreover, Blockpress says that they plan to integrate the Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS) with the platform in the near future. The Blockpress feed of posts. Taking the Blockpress Platform for a Test Flight Just like when we tested Memo, at news.Bitcoin.com we decided to give Blockpress a test flight to get an overall feel for how to use the application. Like last time we deposited $1 USD worth of BCH into our wallet after initial sign up. Always remember these apps are very new and you should only use a small fraction of BCH, and it’s always a good idea to backup your wallet’s key. One confirmation is needed to see the BCH funds appear in your Blockpress account, and from there you can get started utilizing the platform. This is how a profile looks on Blockpress. After scrolling through the list of people posting 70-character posts on Blockpress, head over to the profile section to update your avatar. Editing the profile right now gives you three options — set name, set photo URL, and set header URL. This means you need to add a direct URL link to these fields from a photo site like Imgur. As stated above, each action, like setting a profile picture, costs a small fraction of BCH and is less than a penny. For a rough estimate, nine actions were less than 3 cents USD following the transactions along with the Bitcoin.com Block Explorer. ‘Bitcoin Cash is the Most Scalable, Fastest and Lowest Cost Network to Build On Top Of’ After uploading a profile, header, and username you can head over to the posting section where users can write 70 characters including emojis. Users can reply to posts, as well as like them and tip the user with bitcoin cash. The platform ran very smoothly, and there seems to be a decent amount of people testing the platform out so far since the team launched Blockpress. All actions on Blockpress require a microtransaction of BCH less than a penny. Users can also tip each other’s posts with bitcoin cash. After giving the application a test, news.Bitcoin.com talked with the developer of Blockpress who calls himself ‘Attila,’ in a conversation using Telegram. We asked Attila why he decided to create a social media application using bitcoin cash, and we also asked what he thought about the recently launched Memo platform. “Simply put, Bitcoin Cash is the most scalable, fastest and lowest cost network to build on top of — I’ve been a huge fan of the original peer-to-peer electronic cash vision and want to see new services be built on BCH,” Attila explains to news.Bitcoin.com. “The Memo team and community are inspiring and we’re absolutely impressed by what they accomplished. We were working on the ‘Blockpress Protocol’ for a couple months and were absolutely impressed and relieved to see that others are building on top of BCH.” News.Bitcoin.com asked Attila how the actions work on Blockpress and he explained everything is done using an OP_Return protocol. “We will be publishing specs today on the website,” Attila emphasizes. It is a simple and flexible OP_Return protocol that gives us flexibility for our roadmap. Our plan is to open source the entire code base soon — Our vision is a world where anyone can share, create and connect with each other with no intermediaries. What do you think about the BCH-based platform Blockpress? Let us know your thoughts about this application in the comments below. Disclaimer: Bitcoin.com does not endorse this product/service. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images via Shutterstock, the Blockpress website, and Jamie Redman. Do you agree with us that Bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. That’s why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics. The post Taking the New On-Chain BCH-Powered Social App Blockpress for a Test Flight appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Wall Street Journal reported Telegram has raised $1.7 billion in anticipation of an initial coin offering (ICO). However, the company has instead decided to scrap its much publicized ICO in favor of beefing up its popular messaging service and expanding into tokenization. Also read: Microsociety Fort Galt in Chile Uses Bitcoin to Build Anew Telegram Scraps ICO Paul Vigna details how Telegram has “brought in so much money from a small group of private investors that it is calling off a planned sale of cryptocurrency to the wider investing public.” The company is effectively ditching its ICO after having raised a cool $1.7 billion. It’s an interesting time for Telegram, to put it mildly. Recently, the encrypted messenger service celebrated gaining 200 million users. Almost immediately, the Russian government attempted to force it to provide user information, and a way to backdoor decrypt, in an effort to combat terrorism. Pavel Durov, Telegram’s charismatic founder, flatly refused, pulling lawyers from the determinative Moscow hearing. Soon after, the service was summarily banned throughout Russia. An eventful few weeks for Telegram included colorful protests over Russia’s ban of the encrypted messaging service. That, in turn, set off a wave of protests, including supporters in the country flying paper airplanes (the company’s logo) as a symbol of resistance. Even Mr. Durov openly engaged in the fight, using his personal channel to suggest ways to hack around the ban. If all that wasn’t enough, Telegram’s European services ghosted for most of the continent a few days ago, and sporadically throughout the rest of the world, causing major disruptions. Perhaps then it’s no wonder Mr. Durov is looking not to explore the ICO realm further but will instead use that newly raised cash to beef up existing services. Telegram Open Network According to the Journal, the company is expanding into a “digital payments platform” to compete with the likes of Bitcoin core. It will point a great deal of its new money in that direction, titling the effort the Telegram Open Network. “The network, which will be built using ‘blockchain’ ledger technology, ‘can become a Visa/Mastercard alternative for a new decentralized economy,’ the company noted in a 23-page description of its plans,” Mr Vigna described. If these plans sound vaguely familiar, they should. In 2017, the company looked toward raising over a billion dollars in hopes of bringing-forth a token, “gram,” which would exist on a larger online platform. The company, again, has often pit its future against that of bitcoin core (BTC), suggesting the reason BTC hasn’t been widely adopted is the result of fundamentally chronic and crippling issues. A first mover advantage Telegram might have is its near quarter of a billion user base, a built-in ready market for its services. And according to Mr. Vigna, “Telegram reported in a February Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it raised $850 million from 81 investors in a private deal. In March, the company said it raised another $850 million from 94 investors in a second private deal. The offerings were open only to accredited investors, which meant participants needed to exceed income requirements or have net worth of at least $1 million.” Speculation, besides the above, is that the growing noose around ICOs and their pumpers from regulatory bodies around the world caused Telegram to shift away. This would also make a huge amount of business sense, as typical regulations would expose the likes of Mr. Durov to many more bureaucratic eyes. A private fundraising is just that, private. Do you think Telegram is making a smart move? Let us know in the comments below. Images via Pixabay, Telegram. Looking for a Bitcoin Cash Block Explorer? Check out Bitcoin.com’s BCH Block Explorer today to find transactions, blocks, and other important blockchain data. The post Telegram Rakes in Over $1.5 Billion, Ditches ICO for an Open Network & Token appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Australia’s financial regulator is cracking down on deceptive and misleading initial coin offerings (ICOs), citing “a serious breach of the Australian law.” As a result of the regulator’s inquiries, some issuers have halted their token sales or are modifying their structures. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space ASIC Takes Action Against ICOs The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) announced on Tuesday that it is taking action “on misleading or deceptive conduct in the marketing and selling of digital or virtual tokens via initial coin offerings (ICOs).” ASIC is an independent Australian government body that acts as the country’s corporate regulator. Citing that “these offers can involve significant risks for investors that are often not disclosed or well understood,” the Commission wrote: ASIC is issuing inquiries to ICO issuers and their advisers where we identify conduct or statements that may be misleading or deceptive. This is in addition to our inquiries where we identify potentially unlicensed conduct. As a result of our inquiries, some issuers have halted their ICOs or have indicated the ICO structure will be modified. ASIC Has the Power The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) delegated powers to ASIC on April 19 to take action under the Australian Consumer Law relating to crypto-assets. “The delegation from the ACCC enables ASIC to take action against misleading or deceptive conduct in marketing or selling of ICOs, even if the ICO does not involve a financial product,” ASIC described. ASIC Commissioner John Price elaborated: If you are acting with someone else’s money, or selling something to someone, you have obligations. Regardless of the structure of the ICO, there is one law that will always apply: you cannot make misleading or deceptive statements about the product. This is going to be a key focus for us as this sector develops. Misleading or Deceptive Conduct ASIC has also updated its information sheet on ICOs and cryptocurrency which defines “misleading or deceptive conduct.” The Commission notes that “it does not consider bitcoin to be a financial product,” so the prohibitions against misleading or deceptive conduct relating to bitcoin fall under the Australian Consumer Law and the ASIC Act. The Commission gave four examples of what this conduct may entail. “The use of social media to generate the appearance of a greater level of public interest in an ICO” is the first on the list, followed by “undertaking or arranging for a group to engage in trading strategies to generate the appearance of a greater level of buying and selling activity for an ICO or a crypto-asset.” In addition, “failing to disclose adequate information about the ICO” and “suggesting that the ICO is a regulated product or the regulator has approved the ICO if that is not the case” are also prohibited. The Commission emphasized: It is a serious breach of the Australian law to undertake misleading or deceptive conduct. What do you think of ASIC cracking down on misleading and deceptive ICOs? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, ACCC, and ASIC. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Australia Cracks Down on Misleading and Deceptive Initial Coin Offerings appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Bitcoin forks are invariably contentious, but the latest batch could be the most controversial yet. Bitcoin Prime and Anonymous Bitcoin have been labeled as shameless cash grabs that are little more than pump and dumps orchestrated by opportunistic developers. The projects’ architects of these schemes, naturally, have hit back. Also read: Forget Emojis – Bitcoin Sentiment is Expressed Through Sticker Sets in Chats New Forks Fuel a Furore Rhett Creighton has always been a polarizing figure, but his latest stunt has united a swathe of the cryptocurrency community in condemnation. EOS’ Dan Larimer is synonymous with jumping from project to project, but his flitting looks like a lifetime of faithful service compared to Rhett’s itchy feet. Having announced a dual fork of bitcoin and zclassic last December, which inflated the price of ZCL and enriched Rhett and his cronies no end, he’s now following suit with bitcoin and primecoin to create Bitcoin Prime. Meanwhile, a separate project is doing another fork of zclassic and bitcoin to create Anonymous Bitcoin which aims to “become the new standard for truly private banking”. This means that zlassic will now have forked twice with bitcoin to create a pair of zk-SNARK-based privacy coins – three times if you include zencash, which was also born from a ZCL fork. Zen, to its credit, has since gone on to forge its own community and to differentiate itself from its parent coin. Bitcoin Private, on the other hand, has done little more than infuriate ZCL bagholders, many of whom lost money on the deal. ZCL has now died and been reborn more times than anyone can count, and is currently up 242% in a month. A Prime Way to Pump a Dead Coin Primecoin was trading at 80 cents until Rhett Creighton bought a bunch, announced his plan to fork it, abandoned the Bitcoin Private project, and pressed ahead with his latest money-maker. Many of Rhett’s claims have stuck in the craw of the cryptocurrency community, who recognize a snake oil salesman when they see one. Some figures, including bitcoin developer Jimmy Song, believe that BTC forks are little more than altcoins or airdrops and don’t deserve to be categorized under the bitcoin banner. Regardless of their status, the approach that developers such as Rhett Creighton have taken to merrily forking coins has come in for censure. He’s played heavily, for example, on the fact that Vitalik Buterin once considered building ethereum on top of primecoin, as if this somehow legitimizes the creation of Bitcoin Prime. With primecoin up 350% since the fork was announced, those who got in early – like Rhett Creighton – will profit handsomely whatever happens. At least Rhett is able to see the lighter side of the furore he’s caused, tweeting the following: A Wild Bitcoin Fork Appears Another bitcoin fork emerged this week, turning up in the unlikeliest of places – Bitfinex. Most major exchanges have given bitcoin forks short shrift ever since bitcoin gold and bitcoin diamond but for unknown reasons, Bitfinex has decided to support Bitcoin Interest (BCI). The coin forked from bitcoin back in January, and Bitfinex intends to issue BCI later this month before launching trading. The utility provided by BCI remains to be seen, whose defining feature is the provision of interest to holders who stake their tokens. Whatever its fate, Bitcoin Interest wasn’t born out of a shameless pump of an existing coin, and for that reason alone should prove less controversial than the likes of Bitcoin Prime. Do you think projects such as Bitcoin Prime have merit or are they a shameless cash grab? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bitcoin Prime, Anonymous Bitcoin, and Twitter. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post The Most Controversial Bitcoin Forks Yet Are Coming appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Bitcoin is often accused by regulators, governments and central bankers as being a tool for money laundering by criminal organizations, usually without presenting any evidence. A new report from Hong Kong, a major international financial hub and nexus for trade between China and the whole world, spells this out clearly. Also Read: Bitcoin in Brief Wednesday: Hacker Gets Trolled, Vertcoin Gets Hacked No Evidence of Money Laundering The government of Hong Kong has published on Monday its 2018 Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF) Risk Assessment Report. The paper examines threats and vulnerabilities facing the city with regards to the recommendation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the inter-governmental body that sets international standards on combating ML and TF. Addressing the issue of bitcoin, the report reveals that Hong Kong Police Force monitoring indicates no apparent sign of organized crime or ML/TF concerning the trading of cryptocurrencies. Moreover investigations and intelligence do not suggest cryptocurrencies were used or intended to be used in other prevalent predicate offenses (e.g. drugs, dutiable goods smuggling) or terrorist financing. “The threat level is low.” The government did find, however, that cryptocurrencies have been used as a pretext in Ponzi schemes or as payments for cyber criminals, mostly blackmailers using ransomware. Not a Threat to Free Economies ATMs Near Wan Chai Station Interestingly, the report also explains why the use of bitcoin should not be seen as a threat to governments that don’t try to limit the financial freedom’s of citizens. “Hong Kong is one of the world’s freest economies with a vibrant foreign currency exchange market and no capital controls.” Cryptocurrencies “are therefore not as attractive as in economies where people may try to circumvent currency controls or seek refuge from a high inflation rate.” The approach of the Hong Kong government regarding fraud, as evident by the report, is that it’s enough to warn the public to stay vigilant when dealing with cryptocurrency investment offers and take action only against actual crime. And unlike other governments in the region, Hong Kong sees no need to create regulations to limit the legitimate use of bitcoin. It considers the current legal and regulatory provisions relating to fraud and other crimes to be wide enough to catch offenses, whether involving cryptocurrencies or not. Will this report influence the stance of mainland Chinese government in any way? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Make sure you do not miss any important Bitcoin-related news! Follow our news feed any which way you prefer; via Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, RSS or email (scroll down to the bottom of this page to subscribe). We’ve got daily, weekly and quarterly summaries in newsletter form. Bitcoin never sleeps. Neither do we. The post Bitcoin Is Not Used by Organized Crime Syndicates Says Hong Kong Government appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This week the company BRD (formally Bread Wallet) released its anticipated ‘Augustus’ wallet release which provides BRD users with a bunch of new features. Not only will the BRD wallet offer BCH, BTC, and ETH balances, users can now store over 100 unique ERC20 tokens as well. Additionally, the BRD development team has added a secure in-wallet digital trading service for its supported assets. Also read: Markets Update: Trading Action Heats Up During the First Week of May BRD Launches ‘Augustus’ Wallet Release With In-Wallet Cryptocurrency Trading The BRD platform is a well-known cryptocurrency app that’s been around the digital asset ecosystem for quite some time. This week the BRD development team has launched the Augustus wallet, a release that implements a host of new features. For now, the new features are only available for iOS, but the BRD team’s community manager Alex Eaton explains to news.Bitcoin.com that the Android release will be out soon. The new Augustus platform comes with its standard services which allow users to hold their own private keys. However, the new BRD app now offers the ability to store, send, and receive ethereum (ETH) and over 100 ERC20 tokens that stem from the ETH network. Additionally, the Augustus version lets users choose which currencies they would like to view in the wallet’s user interface, and the app will only list the favorites chosen. Another nice addition for cryptocurrency enthusiasts is the ability to trade digital assets from within the wallet due to an integration with the Changelly API. “The way that we do the trading within the app is with an integration with Changelly,” BRD’s community manager Alex Eaton tells news.Bitcoin.com. “Eventually we want to use a decentralized exchange (DEX) and we’ve been in talks with some development teams. Aaron Lasher, the CMO of BRD, and I were talking about it just yesterday and our team does not feel that DEX platforms are ready for integration yet. So we are still waiting for some DEX platforms to be safe enough so we can feel more comfortable with integration.” The 4-Week BRD Airdrop BRD community manager Alex Eaton. Further, the platform’s native token BRD can be stored within the wallet and during the course of the next four weeks, the company is doing an airdrop registration with a limited amount of spots available per week. During the company’s recent Augustus announcement, the firm explains that BRD tokens can be used for rewards and discounts that become available as the company grows, and they can also be traded on the open markets. “We’ve been doing an airdrop for two weeks and we just started round three of our airdrop this morning — So we’re giving out so far 20 BRD tokens for every single person that registers,” explains Eaton to news.Bitcoin.com. “We’ve been doing the airdrop at weeks at a time, where week one we were looking for 10,000 registrants and everyone got 10 BRD tokens.” “This week we are looking for only 4,000 registrants and if we hit that the amount, everyone regardless of which week you signed up for, will get 25 BRD tokens — Then next week when we start week four will have another registration cap,” Eaton adds. Eaton tells us people can find out more and get alerts about BRD’s 4-week airdrop here, while users can also learn about the new BRD wallet features by joining the team’s Telegram chat. What do you think about the BRD wallet and its latest features? Let us know your thoughts about this platform in the comments below. Images via Telegram, BRD, and the iOS app store. Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. Want to see the top 500 cryptocurrency market caps in real-time check out Satoshi Pulse! The post BRD Wallet ‘Augustus’ Release Features In-App Cryptocurrency Trading appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A group of South Korean lawmakers is working on a bill to legalize initial coin offerings (ICOs), providing they meet certain conditions under the supervision of the government. Meanwhile, the current ICO ban in the country has driven many domestic corporations to raise capital overseas. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Bill to Legalize ICOs Rep. Hong Eui-rak of the South Korean ruling Democratic Party “is leading the move championed by 10 other lawmakers” to legalize ICOs, the Korea Times reported. “They are working to have a bill backing the move endorsed this year.” During the ICO and blockchain technology forum at the National Assembly on Wednesday, Hong said that “the bill was based on a joint study by his office and the Korea International Trade Association (KITA),” according to the publication. “This is the first parliamentary challenge to the government’s ban on domestic initial coin offerings imposed late last year to cool speculative investment in digital currencies such as bitcoin.” The news outlet then quoted Hong saying: The bill is aimed at legalizing ICOs under the government’s supervision. The lawmaker elaborated, “The primary goal [of the legislation] is helping remove uncertainties facing blockchain-related businesses.” Not All ICOs Will Be Legalized However, the publication emphasized that: The bill does not seek [to legalize] unlimited ICOs, but ones initiated by public organizations and research centers committed to promoting and developing blockchain technology. According to the bill, approved ICOs will be subject to tight supervision by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Ministry of Science and ICT, the news outlet conveyed. South Korea banned all ICOs last year. However, the financial authorities were reportedly talking to the country’s tax agency, justice ministry, and other relevant government departments last month about a plan to allow ICOs in the country providing certain conditions are met. Meanwhile, domestic companies have been setting up subsidiaries and launching their token sales abroad, in countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and Japan. Chat app operators Kakao Corp and Naver, for example, have set up subsidiaries in Japan. Hyundai BS&C, an affiliate of Hyundai Group, launched its ICOs in Switzerland. Recently, one of the country’s largest crypto exchanges, Bithumb, also unveiled its plans to launch an ICO in Singapore. However, the FSC has reiterated that regardless of where the ICOs are, Korean companies could still be subject to domestic regulations. While the “current laws [in Korea] do not prohibit ICOs from abroad,” FSC Chairman Choi Jong-ku emphasized, “it is highly likely to violate current legislation.” Do you think South Korea will soon legalize ICOs? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the South Korean FSC. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post South Korean Lawmakers Draft Bill to Legalize Some Initial Coin Offerings appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Derivatives trading platform provider Plus500 posted a 284% increase in revenues in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous year, largely due to high levels of interest in its cryptocurrency CFDs offerings. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Triple Digit Rise On Tuesday, contracts for difference (CFDs) market provider Plus500 released its quarterly earnings for the three months ended March 31. “Q1 2018 revenues were $297.3m, an increase of 284% compared to the same period last year,” the company revealed, adding: The very strong start to the year…resulted from a period of relatively volatile markets and high levels of interest in the company’s cryptocurrency CFDs offering, and in turn encouraged high levels of new customer sign ups and record trading in Q1 2018. Furthermore, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization were up by 418% to $237.3 million. Plus500 operates an online trading platform for individual customers to trade CFDs. Customers can trade them in over 50 countries, with more than 2,200 different underlying global financial instruments comprising equities, indices, commodities, options, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), cryptocurrencies, and foreign exchange. Incorporated in Israel with subsidiaries in the UK, Cyprus, Australia, and Singapore, the company is additionally licensed in New Zealand and South Africa. It offers cryptocurrency trading of up to 1:20 leverage. “You can start with as little as $100.00 to gain the effect of $2,000 capital,” Plus500 advertises on its website. With 0% commission, the company “is mainly compensated for its services through the bid/ask spread.” Hype Dying Down While seeing strong growth in January, Plus500 revealed: We have since seen market conditions return to more normal levels in the last two months. As such we do not expect such an exceptional performance to be repeated in the remainder of the year. Other companies offering cryptocurrency CFDs include IG, IQ Option, Intertrader, Pepperstone, Cityindex, Gkfx, and Xtb. IG, which claims to be the number one provider of CFDs and spread betting worldwide, offers bitcoin, bitcoin cash, bitcoin gold, ether, ripple, and litecoin CDFs. In November the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a warning about CFDs for retail investors. CFDs, “including financial spread bets, with cryptocurrencies as the underlying investment, are increasingly being marketed to consumers. These products are extremely high-risk, speculative products,” the authority warned. What do you think of the popularity of cryptocurrency CFDs? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, IG, and Plus500. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Interest in Cryptocurrency Derivatives Drives CFD Marketplace’s Revenues up 284% appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrency markets are seeing some action today as digital asset values have been fluctuating over the past 72 hours. During yesterday’s trading sessions a lot of digital currencies dropped anywhere between 2-6 percent but many are erasing some of those losses today. On April 28, BTC/USD markets touched a high of $9,538 but dipped below the sub-$9,000 regions on May 1. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) markets touched a high of close to $1,500 on the 28th as well but dropped to $1,320. Today, however, BCH has managed to capture most of those gains back as it hovers around $1,430 at the time of publication. Also read: Court Orders Chilean Banks to Re-Open Crypto Exchange Accounts Markets See Slight Recovery After Yesterday’s Dips May is here and many digital currency enthusiasts believe the ‘Crypto Spring’ is about to bloom after the long and hard Crypto Winter. Right now a good majority of cryptocurrency assets are in the green during today’s trading sessions as most of them saw some losses yesterday. The entire cryptocurrency market capitalization of all 1,600 coins is around $429 billion USD today. BTC/USD markets are currently averaging around $9,060 per coin and trade volume is lighter this week as it hovers around $6.8Bn over the past 24 hours. The top five exchanges today swapping the most BTC are Binance, Okex, Bitfinex, Upbit, and Huobi. The Japanese yen still dominates BTC trades by 39 percent but is much lower than last week’s percentages. This is followed by the USD (29.7%), tether (USDT 22.3%), the Korean won (7.4%), and the euro (3.9%). The top trade today on the peer-to-peer platform Shapeshift is ethereum (ETH) for bitcoin core (BTC). BTC/USD Technical Indicators The daily, weekly and 4-hour BTC/USD charts show some consolidation taking place once again as traders are seeking new positions. At the time of publication, the two Simple Moving Averages (100 & 200 SMA) have a decent gap with the short term 100 SMA above the long-term trendline. This indicates today’s trading action and the path to resistance should be on the upside. MACd is meandering around 23.43 showing it has a lot of room for improvement. Both the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Stochastic oscillators are following the same pattern as the RSI hovers around 46.9. These signs indicate that bulls could manage to muster up strength but BTC/USD trade volumes today are quite flat. Order books show that bulls need to push past tough resistance at $9,250 through $9,600 to gain some better ground ahead. On the backside, if bears grab the reins again there’s some good foundational support around $8,800 to $8,500 for the time being. At the time of publication on May 2, 2018, the BTC/USD price is $9,089 per BTC. Bitcoin Cash Markets Jump Over 10% At the moment Bitcoin Cash markets have seen a considerable spike during today’s trading sessions. Over the past 24 hours, BCH/USD markets are up over 10 percent, while BCH weighted price averages are hovering around $1,430 right now. BCH 24-hour trade volume is decent hovering around $1Bn USD worth of daily trades. The total valuation of the BCH market cap at the moment is over $24Bn and most of the trades today are in BTC. Bitcoin core trades account for 40 percent of today’s BCH trades which is followed by the USD at 19 percent. BCH global trades are also seeing heavy volume from tether (USDT 19%), the Korean won (14.8%), and the euro (1.6%). Both binance coin (BNB), and ethereum (ETH) are also top trades with BCH on May 2. BCH/USD Technical Indicators Looking at BCH/USD charts on Bitfinex and Bitstamp shows there are some differences between BTC/USD markets. The 4-hour BCH/USD chart indicates some overbought signals as the two SMAs are completely different for BCH. The short-term 100 SMA is well below the longer term 200 indicating the path to resistance will likely be on the downside. MACd is still riding northbound and RSI levels are around 66 showing market bulls are awfully close to showing exhaustion. On the flipside, resistance isn’t too tough approaching the $1,540 range and if bulls can manage to make it to that price area then they will see one more nice pitstop around $1,640. We can see on the backside that some nice consolidation has taken place as order books show good support around $1,395, but after that, it is a lot thinner. Most markets are down 0.5 to 1 percent today and BCH/USD prices will likely follow along, but the market has been seeing its own strong movements these past few weeks. At the time of publication on May 2, 2018, the BCH/USD price is $1,433 per BCH. The Verdict: Crypto-Market Optimism Still Trumps Skepticism But Uncertainty Still Remains Overall cryptocurrency market participants seem positive today as more consolidation forms across the digital asset economy. Some notable market movers on May 2nd include EOS which is up 7.6 percent and the Cardano platform’s ADA seeing gains of around 6.6 percent. Further, the cryptocurrency Tron (TRX) has silently moved into the top ten cryptocurrency market caps. Optimism is still on high as traders and enthusiasts believe markets will manage to only get better but there’s still some skepticism after the last four months of downward price trends. The top ten market valuations according to Satoshi Pulse. Where do you see the price of BCH and BTC headed from here? Let us know in the comments below. Disclaimer: Price articles and markets updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not to be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Always remember that only those in possession of the private keys are in control of the “money.” Images via Shutterstock, Trading View, and Satoshi Pulse. Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. The post Markets Update: Trading Action Heats Up During the First Week of May appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Unicef Australia has launched a platform through which third-party donations are made in the form of in-browser computing power which is used for cryptocurrency mining. The website, The Hopepage, allows donors to designate a set percentage of computing power to divert to mining Monero on behalf of Unicef. Also Read: Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund Thinks Institutional Investors Want In On Bitcoin Unicef Australia Encourages Donations of Computing Power Through In-Browser Monero Mining Unicef Australia has launched The Hopepage, a website that the company states will “allow Australians to provide help and hope to vulnerable children by simply opening the page while they are online.” The website states that users “select how much compute power they are willing to donate to the mining, safe in the knowledge the process will not store any personal information,” adding that “The longer you stay on the page and the more processor power you donate, the more algorithms get solved, which earns cryptocurrency.” Unicef Australia director of fundraising and communications, Jennifer Tierney, stated “We wanted to leverage new emerging technologies to raise awareness about current humanitarian crises and raise funds to support children caught up in them. The Hopepage allows Australians to provide help and hope to vulnerable children by simply opening the page while they are online.” Unicef Adopts Opt-In Coinhive Script The platform utilizes AuthedMine – an opt-in version of Coinhive’s API which was released by the company in order to fend off criticism of its product and to justify seeking lenient treatment from adblockers and antivirus products. Unicef has advised that donors “may need to disable [their] ad blocker” in order to use The Hopepage. Unicef Australia digital engagement and content manager, Tony Tang, told local media that “Some ad blockers do disable the script, however, we ask that people that seek to donate disable this for our website. This is not dissimilar to media and news outlets requesting you to disable ad blockers to view their content. While it has potential to limit some users, we are still capturing new audiences we wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach.” Unicef initially did not disclose that it was using Authedmine for The Hopepage, with Mr. Tang stating that the organization chose not to do such “in the same way we wouldn’t disclose server setups or configurations.” Mr. Tang defended the transparency of the platform, stating “We are transparent in the fact we are borrowing a computer’s processing power, and provide the ability to choose how much power is donated. The donation is a one-time session, and needs to be approved by the user each time they visit the site. The Hopepage is entirely user-initiated, and they have the ultimate power to decide whether to participate or not.” Unicef Experiments With Cryptocurrency Mining Donations In February, Unicef launched the Gamechangers program – through which the organization sought to recruit gamers to allocate processing power to mine Ethereum on behalf of Unicef. According to Unicef Australia, funds raised through The Hopepage are currently being allocated to support organization’s efforts in responding to the crisis in Rohingya. At the time of writing, 2,303 people were actively donating processing power through the platform. Do you think that other charitable organization will seek to emulate The Hopepage and develop their own platforms through which donors can offer computing power for crypto mining? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Unicef Australia Launches Crypto Mining Donation Platform appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cryptocurrencies function in a myriad of ways, from stores of value to mediums of exchange, embedded payment systems, vehicles for smart contracts. A use case perhaps underappreciated is the potential for digital assets to facilitate freer societies. Micro-societies, breakaway camps, isles of autonomy are in various states of construction around the world. One of the furthest along is Fort Galt Chile. News.Bitcoin.com caught up with one of its founders, Gabriel Scheare, to find out more about an intriguing project. Also read: Germany Gets Its First Crypto Exchange for Whales Cryptocurrencies Facilitate Rise of Breakaway Societies As this interview was conducted, at least three other micro-societies are being planned or attempting to function: Liberland, Seasteading, and the aptly named Free Society. Each has its particular charm and focus, but one factor increasingly important in their ultimate calculations is cryptocurrency. The present focus, Fort Galt, is based in Chile, a country wormed along South America’s southwest. The country recently has gone back and forth on crypto, but maintains a unique place among Latin American countries as being very open to freer economies and markets. It just might give birth to the first viable project of this kind. News.Bitcoin.com: Take us through how you came upon the idea to start a breakaway society or microsociety. Gabriel Scheare: My partners and I were originally lured to Chile by another such project that was already underway near Santiago, Galt’s Gulch Chile. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a scam so we decided that, if we really wanted to realize our dream, we’d have to go somewhere else and build it ourselves. The underlying motivation is really just the longing for a community of people that share our fundamental principles so that we can live more freely without having to walk on eggshells around incompatible neighbors. The whole Gulch debacle sure looked bad. Was it a total loss or did you at least learn something useful from it? Definitely. I was there working as a volunteer for three months and in that time, I took a lot of note. I had no previous experience in real estate so it was all new to me but nevertheless, it was easy enough to sort everything into the two categories of “what works” and “what doesn’t”. Above all else, I got to see that there was indeed a market for this sort of thing. The Gulch tested the waters and so I suppose you could say that we have a “second mover advantage” in that regard. They essentially did our market research for us just before collapsing. Some other obvious lessons would be things relating to the nature of the scam itself. Things like “don’t sell parcels of land that haven’t actually been subdivided as you’re showing them” and “don’t try to build a new town on environmentally protected land that’s close to a city of six million people, where water rights are in high demand.” Gabriel Scheare Didn’t all of that tarnish the Galt name? Why didn’t you pick a completely new one to distance yourself from the scam? From a marketing perspective, ditching the name would’ve been the smart thing to do. Frankly though, we were just pissed off that a couple of unscrupulous hucksters could so easily drag such a great name through the mud, and we really wanted to redeem it with our own success. Maybe it’s just stubbornness but we refuse to let such a great name be trashed so easily. It should be attached to a shining example of what a self-reliant community can be, and by the time we’re finished it’ll be all that and more. A New Model That Makes the Existing Model Obsolete John Galt was the hero in Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged. How much of her philosophy influenced your project? Yeah, I admit I’m not a big fan of her writing style but the essential message of the book resonates strongly with us. It’s about a guy that gets fed up with the government and goes off to start a secret community in Colorado where he and others like him live in peace without having to contribute to a system they are philosophically opposed to. It struck me as being very much in line with Gandhi’s advice, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I think way too many people waste their time and energy fighting the powers-that-be when they could be focusing on removing themselves from the situation and building something new for themselves. Buckminster Fuller summed it up nicely when he said “you never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” I really dig that attitude because it’s optimistic and constructive rather than confrontational. How viable is the current project? It seems to be moving along wonderfully. A lot had to be done to get us from zero to one, so to speak, but things are taking shape now and we’re all pretty excited. As we speak, cement mixing trucks are pouring concrete at the construction site of our residential community center. We’ve also been selling plots of land to people that will be starting work on their own houses soon. A little later in the year, our schoolhouse will be built as well and several spin-off projects are already coming together around us now too. How did you find cryptocurrencies? I guess I first started hearing rumblings about it in 2011 so I went to a meet-up in Vancouver to learn more about it. That was before any wallet apps existed so I didn’t think it was user-friendly enough to really catch on yet. I kept an eye on it though and when the blockchain.info wallet was launched a couple years later, I decided it was time to jump in. I started mining bitcoin and selling miners in my free time. That was in 2013 and by the end of the year, the value had shot up 10x and the excitement was off the charts. I moved to Chile early the following year. How much of a role do cryptocurrencies play in Fort Galt? We do still accept bank wires but almost all of our members, so far, have paid with cryptocurrencies instead. We’ve accepted bitcoin, dash, and ether and they’ve all proven to be faster, easier, and cheaper to use than any other payment system available today. For me, it brings to mind the gold coins of Atlas Shrugged because I think of bitcoin as being a sort of digital gold. To use it instead of the government’s currency is something simple and practical that we can all do in our daily lives to fan the fires of freedom without breaking a sweat. What do you think about startup societies? Let us know in the comments below. Images via Pixabay, Fort Galt. Looking for a Bitcoin Cash Block Explorer? Check out Bitcoin.com’s BCH Block Explorer today to find transactions, blocks, and other important blockchain data. The post Microsociety Fort Galt in Chile Uses Bitcoin to Build Anew appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

With all the talk about buying lambos, and some people making serious money, it’s no surprise that the cryptocurrency world attracts hackers looking for rich targets. Today’s edition of Bitcoin in Brief showcases two typical cases and one atypical response. Also Read: Japanese Forex Giant GMO to Launch New UK Crypto Trading App Ransomware Hacker Trolled Aaron Lammer, a cryptocurrency podcaster, got his website hijacked by a hacker demanding ransom. But instead of paying the requested 0.025 bitcoin or calling the police, he decided to have some fun with the criminal. The hacker left a ‘contact us’ option, which is not as unusual as it might sound because often such schemers need to help victims with the process. The link directed Lammer to the facebook profile of one Barberousse Mohammed, and so he began trolling him. After Mohammed refused to accept a million pre-sale ICO tokens instead of bitcoin, Lammer tried to lure his hacker into the whole BTC vs. BCH debate by appearing to educate him about the advantages of bitcoin cash. See the entire amusing chat transcript here. And don’t worry, eventually the website was restored by the hosting service. They said the hacker used a WordPress exploit on a different domain housed under the same user to gain control. Vertcoin Twitter Hacked Fake cryptocurrency giveaway scams continue to plague Twitter, with the latest example coming from Vertcoin. Usually the scammers create a new account that looks as close as possible to the real one and reply to all tweets with promises to send back large amounts to anyone that sends them ether. This time they actually took over the official Vertcoin account to promote the scam. Luckily, it appears that only three people actually fell for it and sent BTC to the address before the tweet was taken down. Coinmarketcap Adds New Features Coinmarketcap marked its five year anniversary on May 1 by unveiling a new logo and site design, and releasing an iOS mobile app. The site also added some new features and updated its API. Users can finally now add selected cryptocurrencies to a watchlist for quick and easy future reference. What other developments in the cryptoshpere caught your attention today? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Coinmarketcap. Make sure you do not miss any important Bitcoin-related news! Follow our news feed any which way you prefer; via Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, RSS or email (scroll down to the bottom of this page to subscribe). We’ve got daily, weekly and quarterly summaries in newsletter form. Bitcoin never sleeps. Neither do we. The post Bitcoin in Brief Wednesday: Hacker Gets Trolled, Vertcoin Gets Hacked appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release. SINGAPORE – Viola.AI, the world’s first blockchain-powered Relationship Registry and Love AI that is created by the team behind dating giant Lunch Actually Group, has introduced REL-Registy — a global and transparent relationships and marital registry. REL-Registry protects users through decentralized ID verification with visual recognition and social media accounts and hashes their relationship status on to the blockchain which is immutable and accessible globally. Viola.AI’s goal is to restore trust and transparency to the love industry in the current landscape that are plagued with problems from lack of verification, unsuccessful matches and wrong mindset to date for singles, to increasing relationships challenges that leads to more divorces, lack of transparency in relationship status, and diverse sources for advice for couples. Why Relationships Registry? In today’s day and age, online love scammers are making billions of dollars a year preying on unsuspecting singles. And there is no easy way for singles to find out someone’s actual relationship status. A key issue is that in area of relationship status, marital registries are centralized and unconnected between countries or states, leading to lack of transparency and accessibility for any useful verification purposes. According to The New York Post, the popular hook-up website for cheating spouses, Ashley Madison attracts 5.7 million new users this year — and most of them are women. And GlobalWebIndex (GWI) released the figure that shows 30% of Tinder users surveyed are married, while another 12% are in a relationship. Introducing, Viola.AI REL-Registry. On top of verifying the users’ identity by checking their photo against the real-time video scan and their social media accounts, REL-Registry will also ascertain their relationship status and hash them on the blockchain. With the nature of blockchain that is immutable, relationships that are hashed on the blockchain are decentralized and global – giving singles and couples a peace of mind that their relationship status are transparent, regardless of their geographical location. REL-Registry gives the assurance for singles that they are really talking to other users who are single and ready to commit. Already-married couples can now renew their vows via a marriage on the blockchain. Couples who are about to get married can opt for a dual registration, one with their country of domicile and/or origin, and one on the blockchain, where they are openly declaring their commitment to each other. “There needs to be a way for singles to know that the profile they are interested is indeed single and is not another (unhappily) married profiles looking for some companionship. And for couples, using blockchain is in fact the most efficient and cost-effective way to announce one’s engagement and marriage,” says Violet Lim, CEO & Co-Founder of Viola.AI. A wide variety of smart contracts can also be added too give structures and complement different types of relationships, for example: fun conditions to one’s engagement, such as having a date night once every week, and wedding preparation’s tasks and deadline and a more serious note such as putting down intentions for assets and arrangements of digital assets if one party is no longer there, etc. Blockchain marriages are not something entirely new. In 2014, the first couple in the world registered their marriage on a blockchain through a wedding ceremony held on Skype. More couples have followed suit since. In fact, smart contracts are much safer and more reliable than the conventional methods of storing information – marriage certificates being no exception. REL-Registry makes the process simpler and accessible to all. REL-Registry works hand in hand with the other core features of Viola.AI: the AI-engine which can perform deep learning about each user’s personality, background, and behaviour. Viola.AI is a lifelong love advisor that evolves her role based on the user’s relationship journey which will give personalized advice, timely concierge service and quality matches to help singles to be effective in finding love and to help couples improve their relationships. Experts and merchants would be able to offer their relevant services to highly targeted users. Using Ethereum smart contracts, all parties will be assured that any community and partner’s effort to improve Viola.AI will get their agreed-rewards or revenue share. Viola.AI’s Open Integration also allows its technology to not just be used at solving problems in the Love industry. It is the core of a new registration, verification, and recommendation engine to provide innovative and secure solutions for all other industries, with VIOLET token at the heart of this ecosystem. Viola.AI will be launching its Public Sale between 29 May to 17 June to coincide with the launch of the product’s MVP. The Pre-Sale of the project was sold out 5 days early back in January, and the company recently launched its Alpha Club for contributors of the project which entitles them for various rewards and privileges. ***END*** Learn more about how Viola.AI is going to change the world, one relationship at at time at www.viola.ai Join the discussion on Viola.AI Telegram: https://t.me/ViolaAI About Viola.AI Viola.AI is the world’s first blockchain-powered Relationship Registry and Love AI to restore trust and transparency to the Love industry. Viola.AI evolves with you depending on the stage of relationship you are in – from single, to courtship, to engagement, to marriage and give users personalized advice and recommendations. Viola.AI also verifies the identity and relationship/marital status for all users and couples through its decentralized Relationships Registry. Contact Email Address christina@viola.ai Supporting Link www.viola.ai This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post PR: Viola.AI Introduces REL – Registry – The World’s First Global Relationship Registry on The Blockchain appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A U.S. District Court has ruled against Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group in favor of a Dubai-based cryptocurrency foundation, Alibabacoin. The judge says Alibaba Group did not show any jurisdiction in the U.S. and China’s ban on initial coin offerings eliminates any potential confusion. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space No Jurisdiction for Alibaba U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken ruled in favor of a cryptocurrency and its foundation on Monday against the Chinese giant Alibaba Group Holdings. He “rejected Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd’s bid for a preliminary injunction to block the Dubai cryptocurrency firm Alibabacoin Foundation from using the Alibaba name,” Reuters elaborated, adding that he explained: Alibaba did not show he had jurisdiction, having failed to establish a ‘reasonable probability’ that Alibabacoin’s interactive websites were used to transact business with customers in New York. In a complaint filed with the U.S District Court of Southern District of New York on April 2, Alibaba Group accuses the defendants of using an “unlawful scheme to misappropriate” Alibaba’s brand name “in order to deceive investors in the U.S. and around the world.” The defendants used the Alibaba trademark to raise over $3.5 million from investors through initial coin offerings (ICOs) of Alibabacoins or Abbc Coins which “are neither registered nor approved by U.S. Regulators,” the Chinese company alleged. The Alibabacoin Foundation argued that it was not trying to piggyback off the Alibaba name. Judge Oetken then dissolved a temporary restraining order against the foundation issued on April 2 by another judge. This Is Not China The court document shows that Alibaba Group Holding is a Cayman Islands company with its principal place of business in Hangzhou, China. Alibaba Foundation is a Dubai-based commercial organization with offices in Dubai and Minsk, Belarus. It is also known as the Alibabacoin Foundation and Abbc Foundation. “The judge said it did not matter that Alibabacoin might eventually list its cryptocurrency on U.S. exchanges or that a New York company hosted one of its websites,” Reuters detailed, noting that: Any injury Alibaba might have suffered to its business, goodwill and reputation from alleged trademark infringement likely occurred in China, where the e-commerce retailer is based. Furthermore, the judge explained that “China’s ban on initial coin offerings in September eliminated a key source of potential confusion among consumers about its lack of ties to Alibaba,” the news outlet conveyed. Do you think Alibaba should be able to stop Alibabacoin? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Alibaba Group Holdings. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post US Court Rules Alibaba Powerless to Stop Cryptocurrency Using Its Name appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Over the past few years, the cloud-based instant messaging service Telegram has become extremely popular as millions of users have patronized the platform. Among them there are lots of cryptocurrency enthusiasts in various channels talking about their favorite digital assets. One particular phenomenon that has swarmed the digital currency space on Telegram are cryptocurrency-themed sticker sets. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Even though Pepe is the king of crypto sticker sets, there are more funky cryptocurrency themed stickers on Telegram. If you are a passionate cryptocurrency enthusiast or trader then you probably use the Telegram app to follow certain groups discussing bitcoin and the myriad of cryptocurrencies in the space. Certainly, if a digital currency community exists then there is probably a Telegram group for that specific digital asset. Now crypto-proponents like their memes and GIFs and share them often on the platform when something crazy happens within the digital currency universe. Another great phenomenon shared widely on Telegram are customized sticker sets that reflect a person’s moods, much like an emoji. One particular sticker set on Telegram making the rounds is the ‘BCH Gang’ series shared by bitcoin cash supporters. The set features the rap artist Lil’ Windex saying “I got that bitcoin cash,” “BCH Gang,” and more with silly green and red chart candles in the backdrop. Another set shared by BCH supporters is the ‘Bitcoin Warz’ series featuring Spongebob Squarepants saying “Store of Value” with some rainbows, and a Lightning Network supporter doing mental gymnastics yelling ‘Bcash.’ Then there is the infamous ‘Fit Vitalik’ sticker set displaying an extremely muscular Vitalik Buterin doing many things throughout the series. There’s commentary on the steroid-infused V sticker pack that has the Ethereum inventor saying things like “No Pain No Gainz,” and “Make Vitalik Big Again.” The ‘Fit Vitalik’ sticker series comes complete with a Christmas themed sticker for those feeling merry during the holiday season. Another hilarious set is the ‘Ship’ sticker series which has a few funny crypto-infused catchphrases like “When Lambo?” “When Homeless?” “Hodl Hodl,” and more. The Ship set also has a few pictures of a Nissan Micra, Lamborghini, and some nerdy dude with a cute girl that says “When Golddigger?” The Ship Sticker Set The ‘Tether’ sticker set is another series that has quite a lot of humorous stickers to choose from tied to everyone’s favorite ‘stablecoin.’ The sticker set has pictures of a great Tether candle or a picture of the Tether logo sitting on a royal throne. There are other pictures that say “Bitfinexed,” and “Bitmexed,” and one of JP Morgan’s Boss Jamie Dimon calling BTC “Worse Than Tulip Bulbs.” The Tether Sticker Set The ‘Blockchain’ sticker set is another favorite that is always sure to please a crowd of cryptocurrency enthusiasts. The set is a large assortment of cut out images of cryptocurrency luminaries. The series has quite a lot of liked and disliked personalities, dignitaries, and pundits within the cryptocurrency industry. Hate them or love them the members of the cryptocurrency community in this sticker pack include Craig Wright, Adam Back, Blythe Masters, Charlie Lee, Matt Corallo, Ben Lawsky and more. There are many more cryptocurrency sticker packs on Telegram and listing them would take all day. One particular king within the Telegram cryptocurrency sticker set collections is Pepe the Frog. Throughout the many Pepe sticker sets on the messaging app, the green frog can often be seen doing all kinds of digital currency themed activities like trading shitcoins. The cryptocurrency industry is alive and well this spring as their favorite assets start to recover from the ‘Crypto Winter’ of 2018 — Many enthusiasts shared the all-time high and low emotions through custom sticker sets found in the alleyways of digital currency Telegram channels. What do you think about cryptocurrency infused sticker sets on Telegram? Is there a specific set on Telegram that you enjoy? Let us know about it in the comments below. Images via Shutterstock, and Telegram sticker sets. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Forget Emojis – Bitcoin Sentiment is Expressed Through Sticker Sets in Chats appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On Tuesday, reports regarding the notorious Facebook investor and venture capitalist Peter Thiel and his Founders Fund was revealed. According to sources familiar with the matter, Thiel’s fund has made an investment in the startup Tagomi, a firm that plans to execute cryptocurrency buy and sell orders as a brokerage service dealing with institutional investors and family offices. Also read: This Guy Is Fighting a Legal Battle with the CFTC over Bitcoin Classification Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund Helps Inject $15.5 Million in Capital Into the Cryptocurrency Startup Tagomi Systems The Peter Thiel Founders Fund is betting that institutional investors want to get in on bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets. Thiel’s venture-capital firm maintains the biggest portfolios in Silicon Valley and just recently it made an early-stage investment in Tagomi Systems Inc. The Wall Street Journal reports that Tagomi is a startup that aims to provide electronic-trading guidance to cryptocurrency investors. Tagomi is a startup based out of New York, and the company just filed a Form D notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 15. The report on May 1 details that the Founders Fund was involved in a funding round for Tagomi that resulted in $15.5Mn USD. The publication did not detail whether or not the Founders Fund led the seed round, and details on Tagomi’s business model is relatively unknown. However, the recently filed Form D with the SEC shows that the Founders Fund managing partner, Napoleon Ta, is named as one of Tagomi’s directors. According to reports Tagomi plans to facilitate high-speed electronic brokerage services with cryptocurrencies to institutional investors and family financial management services alongside over-the-counter (OTC) operations. Long on Cryptocurrencies: Tagomi Systems is the Founders Fund’s Fourth Cryptocurrency Venture The Facebook and Paypal investor Thiel is a big believer in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Earlier this year the Founders Fund revealed it had allegedly “amassed hundreds of millions of dollars” of bitcoin since mid-2017. Just recently during an interview with the Economic Club of New York, Thiel stated he was ‘long’ on bitcoin and called it the internet’s gold. I would be long bitcoin, and neutral to skeptical of just about everything else at this point with a few possible exceptions — There will be one online equivalent to gold, and the one you’d bet on would be the biggest. Tagomi Systems is not the only cryptocurrency project the Founders Fund has dipped its venture capital paws into. Thiel’s fund has also recently invested in the tokenization platform Harbor. Additionally, Thiel’s organization has injected capital into the funds Polychain Capital, and Metastable Capital which are primarily focused on cryptocurrency investment vehicles as well. Tagomi’s Form D filing with the SEC shows the firm has declined to disclose its revenue range, and the securities offered by the startup are disclosed as “equity.” What do you think about Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund throwing more money at cryptocurrency ventures? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below. Images via Pixabay, AP, and CNN. Do you like to look at cryptocurrency market capitalizations and see how your favorite cryptocurrency is doing? Check out Satoshi Pulse, it aggregates data for the top 500 cryptocurrencies including prices, market valuations, and charts. The post Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund Thinks Institutional Investors Want In On Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The list of crimes to earn the opprobrium of IOTA fans is growing by the day. Journalists who fail to pen fawning hagiographies of David Sønstebø and his team are singled out for persecution by IOTA acolytes. But it’s not just reporters who are blacklisted: anyone who tweets a link to an IOTA story – or who even likes a tweet – is also deemed an enemy combatant. Also read: London-Based LBX Exchange Adds Bitcoin Cash to Its Offerings IOTA’s Defenders Go on the Warpath As someone famous once said, “The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it.” It’s an ethos that a subset of the IOTA community have taken to heart. Last week, the Financial Times’ Jemima Kelly wrote about IOTA’s obsession with controlling the narrative. While no organization welcomes unfavorable press coverage, IOTA has gone to extreme lengths to penalize anyone who doesn’t toe the party line. In her piece, Kelly explained: IOTA talks a lot about FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt), a term adopted by the crypto community to refer to critical commentary. The acronym might also reasonably be applied to its own approach to dealing with critics. She added: “IOTA’s ‘troll army’ – which is how its team of online disciples is often referred to as – have scared off some people enough for them not to want to speak out. Two people we asked to speak to for this story told us they didn’t want to because they were worried about the consequences of doing so. One was worried about being threatened with physical harm. Tim Swanson, founder of tech consultancy Post Oak Labs and a leading authority in the space, told us he undid a retweet of a story that was mildly critical of IOTA because he felt intimidated by…a senior person from the IOTA team”. Liking a Tweet Is Now FUD Jemima Kelly wasn’t kidding about sharing a tweet being grounds for referral to IOTA’s Politburo for Public Enlightenment, better known as Tangleblog. It is here that the most egregious thought crimes are called out. According to the blog’s author, for example, Zcash founder Zooko is guilty of spreading FUD by tweeting a link to Kelly’s FT article. As if that wasn’t heinous enough, Grayscale Investments had the temerity to like the tweet, which is apparently “breathtaking” and part of a “dirty agenda”. The list of organizations that IOTA and its army has called to boycott is too long to list, but includes Bitcoin.com, Coindesk, and The Next Web, whose lead journalist Mix has earned particular ire, and to his credit made a point of regularly prodding the IOTA beehive with scant regard for the consequences. When journalists get out of line by reporting the news, or Twitter users overstep the mark by sharing tweets, IOTA’s enforcers follow a predictable pattern. Anatomy of an IOTA Attack The first strike usually occurs on Twitter. The writer of an article such as this one will be sent veiled threats, told that they “aren’t a journalist” and ought to know better than to “spread FUD and misinformation”. If the writer has committed any minor infraction in the past – tweeting support for a now defunct cryptocurrency; composed an embarrassing personal blog; been pictured in an ill-advised Christmas sweater – this will be dredged up and used as ammo. It’s a dirty war and anything is fair game. Next, the comments section of the article will fill up with copy pasted complaints as IOTA’s troll army goes into overdrive. With a publication such as news.Bitcoin.com, it may be suggested that the company is motivated to “FUD IOTA” because it fears that bitcoin is threatened by IOTA’s superior DAG technology. Or perhaps the writer is salty because they didn’t buy IOTA when it was 20 cents. While some journalists and researchers refuse to be cowed, others drink the Kool Aid, undo their retweets, and refrain from all public discussion about IOTA in favor of a quiet life. It was Joseph Goebbels, for the record, who said that quote at the outset. “The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it.” Inside IOTA’s Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, the education of the masses has only just begun. Do you think a calm and reasonable debate will ensue in the comments section for this article? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Twitter. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post IOTA Supporters: Tweeting a News Link Is “Spreading FUD” appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article